NEW DELHI: The sealing drive is now expected to shift its focus inside the residential areas, with the Supreme Court-empowered monitoring committee asking the three corporations to initiate action against the house owners who have been misusing the ‘stilt-parking’ area.
“During our inspections, most of the stilt (areas) were found to be misused. The monitoring committee directs that the deputy commissioners of all zones should get these premises inspected and all such stilts will be sealed forthwith,” a letter from the committee reads.

Under Master Plan of Delhi 2021, the houses with stilt parking are allowed a relaxation in FAR of 350, excluding the stilt parking area. “Earlier, this FAR used to be 250, which was raised by 100 in 2007. So residents could be built stilt parking floor up to 8ft high, upper ground floor and three floors on top of it,” a senior corporation official said.

Additionally, the total building height can be up to 15m or, in case of a fire NOC, up to 17.5m, but residents have been using the stilt parking space as storage space, godowns, servant quarters or even for commercial activities,” he added.

Sources said the north and south corporations had already conducted a survey to identify such violations.

On Monday, too, the sealing drive continued. In east Delhi, which has seen the least action till now, 31 units were sealed. “Out of these, 26 properties were sealed for misuse in non-conforming areas such as Priya Enclave, Kiran Vihar, Bahubali Enclave, Rishabh Vihar, Surajmal Vihar and RamVihar under the Shahdara (south) zone,” a spokesperson said. Five shops were sealed on Babarpur Road.

The east corporation has also issued a notice to 11 illegally-running de-addiction centers in Shahdara (north) zone and said these would soon be sealed. No property was sealed in the north corporation areas while the south corporation closed nine properties in Raghu Nagar under the Najafgarh zone.